The FTX brand on a laptop computer display screen.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg through Getty Photos
The Securities Fee of The Bahamas says it seized $3.5 billion price of cryptocurrency from collapsed crypto alternate FTX.
In a media launch late Thursday, the watchdog confirmed the whole sum taken from FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, and added that the funds have been moved into its personal digital wallets “for safekeeping.”
The regulator had beforehand confirmed it was holding a few of FTX’s digital property however didn’t specify the quantity.
The funds have been valued at greater than $3.5 billion, based mostly on market pricing on the time of switch, in accordance with the fee. The switch happened Nov. 12, the day after FTX filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety within the U.S.
The Bahamian securities fee mentioned the funds are being held on a “short-term foundation” till it’s directed by the Bahamas’ Supreme Courtroom to ship them to clients and collectors, or to liquidators of the insolvency property.
The regulator mentioned it took the funds after receiving data from Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s disgraced co-founder, regarding cyberattacks on the programs of FTX’s Bahamian unit.
There was “important threat of imminent dissipation” of the property beneath FTX Digital Markets’ management, it mentioned.
After FTX filed for chapter, it was focused in a suspected hack that noticed $477 million drained from the agency’s crypto wallets. The identification of the perpetrator isn’t but identified.
The Bahamian regulator has been scrutinized over its position within the FTX collapse and subsequent authorized proceedings.
The fee needed to deal with insolvency proceedings for FTX within the Bahamas. However FTX’s U.S. legal professionals contested the transfer, alleging in a Nov. 17 submitting that the regulator coordinated with Bankman-Fried to achieve “unauthorized entry” to FTX programs to switch digital property to its personal custody.
In response, the Bahamian regulator mentioned that the claims have been “inaccurate,” and that its choice to maneuver the funds was taken to guard the pursuits of purchasers and buyers.
Bankman-Fried, 30, additionally FTX’s former CEO, was arrested within the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the USA, the place he’s awaiting trial on expenses of fraud, conspiracy to commit cash laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.
He was launched final week on $250 million bail, and has reportedly been receiving guests at his mother and father’ California house, together with “The Massive Quick” creator Michael Lewis.
Bankman-Fried is predicted to be arraigned and enter a plea in federal court docket in Manhattan on Jan. 3.
